How to Facilitate Sales if you are a Newborn Entrepreneur
A few weeks ago, I was at my client’s place for the marketing planning of the next six months, and he was looking at a few companies he wanted to partner with for the success of his platform.
While he was doing the research, I noticed what is commonly called bias:
the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgement.
He didn’t want to consider partnering with companies that didn’t have a certain amount of likes on their Facebook page and a specific number of positive reviews.
That is exactly why I am writing this article right now.
What he was doing is common. I would say normal.
If you have ever read the book Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy authored by Phil Barden, you may already understand that one of the “Big 3” human motivations grounded in the psychological process is Security. The main goals of the panic and fear system related to the need of security are «to avoid danger, avoid change, keep the status quo, avoid uncertainty, strive for stability and not waste energy.
What consumers want in purchasing a particular product is to achieve their goal while reducing their risk
But...wait a moment – you might say – I read in Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley that people don’t buy what they need or they should buy; instead, they buy what they want. How does this correlate with what Phil Barden claims?
There is no incoherence in the two theses.
On the contrary, the question you should ask yourself is the following: What do people want?
If you consider my client, he wanted to connect with potential partners, and the way he was doing that was by looking at likes and reviews.
Thus…
What do people want?
According to what Phil Barden writes, one of the key elements that consumers consider in the purchasing decision is how they can reduce their risk while maximising the benefits of what they buy to satisfy their goals.
[1] Decoded, Phil Barden, While Ed., p. 191
[2] Oversubscribed, Daniel Priestley, Capstone Ed., p. 49
How do they do that?
They simply look for social signals.
Consider for an example the Amazon algorithm.
Amazon rewards books according to the number of sales and the number of reviews.
This is not neutral from a marketing perspective.
As we have said, one of the ways people purchase is according to loss prevention. Thus, you are more likely to purchase a book with a lot of reviews than a book with just a few, and you might buy a book labelled Bestseller even if it was the author who bought all those the copies of the book in order to be rewarded by the algorithm.
But because that book is at the top of the list, you think that if it is there, it must certainly be good. As Al Ries would say, there is no reality: there are only perceptions.
Again, what do people want?
Before drawing a conclusion, let’s see what Jonah Berger says in Invisible Influence:
When we’re not sure about the right thing to do, we look to others to help us figure it out. Imagine looking for a parking spot. After driving around for what seems like forever, you find a whole side of a street free of cars. Success! But excitement quickly turns to concern: If no one else parked here, maybe I shouldn’t, either. There might be a street cleaning or some special event that makes parking there illegal. Using others as information sources saves us time and effort.
What do people want, then?
We can certainly say that people want what other people want.
Even when they say they want is to be different, they are usually conforming to some social group that portrays itself as an outcast, or they are just protecting their belonging to a particular social status.
How can this help you facilitate sales?
Well…you now know that you need to get countless referrals with utmost urgency to increase the social proof related to what you do and how you do it. The more the merrier.
But there is a problem…
How do you ask your customers to write a review in order to be credible?
You can find an in depth way in my book, Brand To Sell. Ignite Your Influence and Build Your Brand with Broadcast PR, but four points seem to be sufficient:
What kind of hesitation did you have before contacting us?
Have we solved your problem, and how do you think we have done it compared to your previous suppliers?
Would you recommend us to other people? If yes, why?
Do you want to add any personal consideration?
